Star Trek Into Darkness ☆☆☆☆

SPOILERS! Cannot emphasize ENOUGH how many SPOILERS there are gonna be. So read on for my full review of the film, but only if you have seen it. If you have not yet seen it I take no responsibility for your future viewing being ruined if you carry on beyond this point.

So again.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!



Ahem.


(image courtesy of Star Trek and Empire Magazine)

Again, like with all future films that are in 3D I stuck to the 2D format, and believe me it doesn't suffer just because you happen to not get pieces of the Enterprise flying at you as it crashes or gets blown to pieces. I would like someone who has seen the 3D version to comment on what the special effects were like for them.

I thought this was a brilliant second outing for the rebooted franchise. That first part in the distant planet which was hugely colourful and diverse really harked back to original Trek, where everything was strange and new. It also reintroduced the characters nicely, with Bones and Kirk running for their lives from the alien race because Kirk screwed up slightly, Spock in the middle of an active volcano preparing for death so another race does not die out, and Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov all desperately trying to work around them.


The Enterprise being underwater was just fabulous. I smiled so much when I realised that's where they were hiding it, and Scotty's annoyance at the whole thing was really good to hear.

They pretty much nailed the casting in the first movie, though it does still slightly annoy me they couldn't have cast a Scotsman to play Scotty I'm not sure anyone else but Simon Pegg could do it. Plus he does us Scots proud accent wise. The obvious addition to talk about is Mr Cucumber Patch himself, but we'll get to my love of him later. Just wanted to mention that I thought Alice Eve was a great casting choice for this film.


Eve surprised me slightly, I thought she was going to end up being a slightly bad-guy, but then if she was they couldn't have her carry on into the next films (if any more are to be made). She was sassy and bright, ok so I know there have been lots of complaints about the gratuitous underwear scene but hey, it's about Kirk's libido at the end of the day and the fact he cannot stay turned round when a pretty girl is undressing. Plus it isn't as though the girl is naked or she is waltzing around like that for half the movie, it's a few seconds maximum.

Anyway, Eve was great, and though slightly predictable at turning on her own crazed Father, it worked well and the flirtations attempts of Bones and Kirk at her were pretty funny.



The thing about this film is it feels very much like a set-up movie, like a book in the middle of a huge series that has to tie up loose ends (kill off Pike and establish without doubt that Kirk and the crew are going to get to go on their 5 year deep space mission) and create new threads (war with the Klingons) it left me feeling that something bigger is on the horizon compared to this one.


It also was a little too much of a buddy film, but I guess the relationship of Kirk and Spock was fledgling at the end of the first film and needed to be cemented here. When Kirk died I had this odd feeling of really? Are they gonna let him die? Surely not...oh thank god the puffball came back to life so Bones can save him! I have always been quite skeptical of Kirk, though I love Chris Pine and think he plays him wonderfully, but there was always too much of the playboy about him. But here, self-sacrifice, being logical for once - oh gods Mr Pine you kinda killed me when you died.
I felt like it was cheating when Spock contacted, well, Spock to find out more about Khan. Though always happy to see Leonard Nimoy in work I wanted there to be a different way to discover who Khan could really be to Starfleet. But it worked, and seeing as the first film set up this clash of future and past it was good to carry on the theme.

Now Khan, aka John Harrison, aka CucumberPatch, aka Benedict Cumberbatch, was a phenomenal piece of casting. Truly. If anyone can embody anger, emotionless violence, pure hate, and still make you really strangely want to give him a hug and make it all better, then its gotta be Cumberbatch. The scene in the cell when he has his back to Kirk and Spock, telling them about the threat to his people and his anger at being used, I mean god he was scary. Physically shaking with the anger and torment and emotion spilling from his eyes. I imagine in real life I wouldn't want to piss Mr Cumberbatch off, cos he could really bring it.


I loved that in the end Khan was frozen with the rest of his psychotic clan, it means there is a chance of him coming back in the future. Using him as a way of introducing the Klingons was also clever, because your focus was always on Khan but the importance of what he was doing, and the crazy Commander, to the future of the Earth and Star Fleet was not lost on you.


Now, truly, it was a cheesy ending. But it was so needed, just to hear Kirk say:


"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."


It is great to get that 'man' replaced with 'one', because that is something Star Trek has often suffered with, being misogynistic in its portrayal of women-folk and not having enough strong women on board ship. Hence the introduction of Alice Eve.

I get my sister's complaint that this wasn't as funny as the first movie, which to be fair it isn't. But also it wanted to be less funny, to make these characters grow up that bit more and cement their relationships. Scotty and Bones are the main funnymen this time round, though Kirk and Spock still get a share of the laughs. Sulu and Chekov come more into their own, and I hope George Takei is proud of how his iconic character is being portrayed.


Personally I really enjoyed this film. The first is my favourite but Khan was a far scarier villain than Nero (sorry Eric). I think in a lot of ways Cumberbatch carried this film, but that may be more because of the importance placed on the character than a reflection on the rest of the cast. Not many films or shows manage to cast perfectly, but Star Trek and JJ Abrams sure set the bar high for themselves and every other sci-fi franchise.

So heres to the next one, may the Klingons prove to be just as scary as Khan and the visuals just as arresting as that first sequence in the pink foliage.